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A record number of Minnesota school districts asked local taxpayers for additional financial support Tuesday. An unofficial tally showed about three-fourths of the measures passed, but voters in several big suburban districts answered with a resounding "no." Of the 341 school districts in Minnesota, 183 held excess levy referendums. The results will likely set the stage for even greater debate over school funding levels.

In a year when the Legislature changed Minnesota tax law to take the cost of public education off local property taxes, most school districts asked local voters to put some of the expected savings back into their schools.

Many schools also counted on excess levies to help make up for than a less-than-expected increase in state education funding.

Voters in the suburban Hopkins school district agreed to provide an extra $2 million in each of the next nine years. School Board Chairman Timothy Bergstedt was pleased with the vote. "We take it as a real positive and hope it means we're doing good things for kids and moving in the right direction," he said.

Voters also approved levy questions in Edina, Mahtomedi, Robbinsdale, Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, St. Louis Park and South Washington County.

But many large suburban districts saw referendums soundly defeated. The largest levy was in the Anoka-Hennepin school district, where voters rejected a request for more than $28 million a year for eight years.

Superintendent Roger Giroux says it was a tough sell. "You're explaining the operating costs of the school system to a large population, and the complexities of that. And you're doing it in the face of an expectation of a tax cut. And between the two of those, I think that became a very difficult message to get across," he said.

Giroux says recent negative levy comments by Gov. Ventura and statewide political groups added to the confusion.

In the neighboring Osseo school district, voters overwhelmingly rejected a levy to raise $14 million in each of the next 10 years. Gov. Ventura claimed the district left important tax information out of a referendum brochure mailed to his Maple Grove home. District officials denied any omissions, but couldn't undo the damage.

Voters in the Mounds View district rejected a referendum to raise $6.8 million in each of the next 10 years. The Taxpayers League of Minnesota criticized that district last week over an elementary school newsletter it claimed was misleading and inaccurate.

Referendums also failed in Bloomington, Eden Prairie, Inver Grove Heights, Lakeville, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, Spring Lake Park and West St. Paul.

Scott Croonquist of the Association of Metropolitan School Districts says those districts, and others, will now face drastic budget cuts in the coming year. He says the Legislature should rethink the whole idea of school levy referendums.

"Cities and counties are able to levy taxes on garbage collection, sewer, criminal justice, and the voters do not weigh in on those issues. The one we put to a vote is the educational programs and future of our state," he said.

Croonquist says he also thinks schools must push for a supplemental K-12 funding bill in next year's legislative session, even though the two-year budget was set this year.

Bob Meeks of the Minnesota School Boards Association says leaders in each school district made a decision to place a question on the ballot based on their local needs. He says it's hard to make any sweeping conclusions about this year's votes, but he thinks lawmakers should get one clear message.

"If you have a 75-percent passing rate, that says people are willing to put their money where their mouth is. And that's always been a question, at least every year some members of the Legislature, members of the administration will question whether or not people are willing to pay for the schools. If you get a 75-percent passing rate, I think they do," Meeks said.

School districts unable to gain local taxpayer approval for a levy must wait until next fall to place another referendum on the ballot.